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SLAVERY 



By J. T. GIBBS. 

n 



OKAWVILLE -:- ILLINOIS 
J. T. OIBBS 

1913 



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(5-4 4- 



Copyright, 1913. 
By J. T. GIBBS. 



X 

©CI,A358r>02 



SLAVERY 



Slavery was introduced into the Jamestown 

Colony in 1G19 by the Commander of a Dutch trading 

lntroduc= vessel, who sold twenty negroes to the set- 

tion. tiers. They were useful in the cultivation 

of tobacco and their labor increased the production of 

that plant. 

Daring the early colonial period slavery existed 

in all the colonies. In the north slaves were used 

chiefly as house servants, while in the 

In all the g^^^j^ ^j^ey worked on the plantations, do- 
Colonies. -^ 

ing practically all the work of the farm. 

Slavery was not profitable in the north and was 
gradually abolished there. 

The invention of the Cotton Gin by Ely Whitney 

in 1793 greatly increased the profits of slave labor. 

With this machine three men could ex- 

The Cot= ^^,^^^ ^^^ ^g^^g fj,Qj^ -j^QQQ pounds of cotton 

ton Qin. , . i i 

in a day, while by hand one able-Dodied 

man could pick but one pound in a day. 



4 SLAVERY 

By a provision of the Ordinance of 1787 
"f i'ts't^^ Slavery was prohibited in the Northwest 
Territory forever. 
The Constitution of the United States provided, 
in Article I., Section IX., Clause 1, that the importa- 
tion of slaves into the United States could 

"^•^ ^x- **"° iiofc he prohibited prior to the year One 
stitution. f f J 

Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight. 

Early in the constitutional period, the country di- 
vided into two sections on the Slavery Question, the 
South favoring and the North opposing it. 
n* 'A a ^^ ^^^^^ time Slavery, being unprofitabh^ 
in the North, had gradually died out in 
that section and existed only south of the Mason and 
Dixon Line. 

Whenever the question of admitting a new state 
came up in Congress, each of these sections studied 
the situation carefully to determine whether the ad- 
mission of that particular state would be to its disad- 
vantage. 

Thus when Ohio was admitted, in 1803, it came 
in as a free state by the provision of the Ordinance 
of 1787, and the southern section, tliinking that the 
northern free states were getting too nutnerous and 
too powerful and might some day ont-vot(^ them on 



SLAVERY O 

all questions that might arise in Congress, demanded 

the admission of Louisiana, a southern, slave state, 

which was admitted in 1812. Then followed Indiana, 

free, in 1816; Mississippi, slave, in 1817; Illinois, 

free, in 1818 ; Alabama, slave, in 1819; and Maine, 

free, in 1820. This about preserved the relative 

strength of the two sections. 

When Missouri applied for admission to the Union 

a violent discussion arose as to whether it should 

^^ ... come in as a free or a slave state. The 
The Mis= 

souri Com= proposed state was more northern than 
promise, southern in geographical location, but the 
people of the proposed state favored slavery, and the 
southern section claimed it was their turn to have a 
state admitted favorable to their views on the Slavery 
Question — the last previous state admitted (Maine) 
being a free state. 

This controversy was settled by a bill in Congress 
proposed by Henry Clay. This bill was known as 
the Missouri Compromise. By its provisions Mis- 
souri was to be admitted as a slave state, but Slavery 
was to be forever prohibited in the other territory 
west of the Mississippi River and north of the line of 
36 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude, the south- 
ern boundarv line of Missouri. 



b SLAVERY 

The bill became a law in 1820 and Missonri was 
admitted as a slave state in 1821. 

There were persons in the colonies who thought 

Slavery to be wrong and that it should be abolished. 

^ ^. ^ The framers of the famous Ordinance of 
Sentiment 

Against 1787 recognized the evil of Slavery and in 
Slavery, ^-j^g provisions for the organization of the 
Northwest Territory they forbade Slavery there or in 
the states to be formed from that territory. 

The framers of the Constitution recognized that 
the Slavery question was a much discussed subject 
and that sooner or later the opposition to the system 
would crystallize in an effort to abolish Slavery and 
the slave trade. They provided in Article I, Section 
IX, Clause 1, that the slave trade could not be abol- 
ished before the year 1808. 

Washington kept slaves, and one of the provisions 
of his will was that after his death his slaves should 
be free. 

In 1807 England prohibited the Slave trade in that 
country. The matter was much talked about in this 
country, and approved by many, and the 
Abolishes slave trade was abolished in this country 
Slave trade gQQ^ after. This with the repeated discus- 
sions that arose upon the admission of states during 



SLAVERY 7 

Madison's and Monroe's terms of the Presidency, 
brought the people up to fever heat. It was just at 
this time that Chiy's Missouri Compromise quelled 
the excitement. Many persons believed the matter 
permanently settled. 

When Abraham Lincoln was about 18 or 19 years 
of age he, with a companion, went down the Ohio 
River and the Mississippi River to New Orleans with 
a raft loaded with produce for sale. It was his first 
visit to that city and he was much interested in every- 
thing he saw while there. 

One day he and his companion were passing along 
the street when their attention was attracted by the 
sound of the voice of an auctioneer. Joining the 
crowd that had gathered on the street, they soon 
learned that an auction sale of slaves was in progress. 
A negro family was being sold, some of the members 
to be taken to one place and some to another. 

Lincoln and his companion did not remain long 
near the disagreeable scene. As they walked away, 
Lincoln was particularly quiet for some time, when 
he said to his companion, ''If I ever get a chance to 
hit slavery, I'm going to hit it hard." 

During the period that followed the enactment of 
the Missouri Compromise, many able writers wrote 



SLAVERY 



upon the evils of slavery, and many 

" preachers and other public speakers told 
Literature ^ r- r 

their hearers that the evil should be abol- 
ished. 

Pamphlets were printed and circulated urging the 
abolition of slavery. Able editorial writers in both 
the secular and the religious press kept the minds of 
the people agitated with the horrors and the injustice 
of slavery. 

One of these was Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, editor 
of the "Observer", a religious paper published in Sr. 
Louis. Having more or less trouble with his publi- 
cation in St. Louis, which was in a slave state, he de- 
cided to remove to a free state and located at Alton, 
Illinois. Here the pro-slavery element were very bit- 
ter against him and his work. His printing press 
was destroyed, and he secured another. This was 
destroyed and another secured. The third press was 
destroyed and the fourth secured. 

The question now seemed to be the right of free' 
speech and a free press and the people divided into 
two classes, the one defending Lovejoy's right to 
print his views and the other determined to prevent 
the publication of his paper because it was hurting 
slavery. They tliought that by obstrueting Lovejoy 



SLAVERY 9 

and ruining bini financially they would over-awe any 
other persons who might want to publish anti-slavery 
literature. 

Lovejoy and his friends decided to defend this 
fourth press and in doing so, Lovejoy was shot and 
killed by a mob which destroyed the press on the 
night of November 8, 1837. 

The news of the murder of Lovejoy spread very 
rapidly over the country and aroused the bitterest an- 
tagonism of the anti-slavery people against those re- 
sponsible for the crime. Instead of over-aweing the 
opponents of slavery, it made them more bold. Even 
the pro-slavery element of the south recognized that 
the matter had been carried too far. 

Lovejoy was considered a martyr to the cause of a 
free press, and an elegant monument has since been 
erected in Alton to his memory. 

While Illinois was still a territory the pro-slavery 

element of the country made several attempts to have 

the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787 

...*". changed so that when the territory was ad- 

mitted to statehood it could be admitted as 

a slave state. James Madison prevented the change 

in the Ordinance of 1787. 

After Illinois was admitted to the Union as a state 



10 SLAVERY 

an effort was made to chaiDge the constitution, wliich 
had been formed along: the line of the provisions of 
the Ordinance of 1787, so that slavery conld be intro- 
duced. 

While Edward Coles was Governor of the state, 
the legislature, which had a majority of members fa- 
voring slavery, submitted to a vote of the people a 
proposition to so change the constitution. 

The campaign was long and hotly contested. Gov. 
Coles was bitterly opposed to slavery and gave his 
salary for four years ($4000.00) to defeat the pro- 
posed amendment. When the result of the election 
was learned it was found that the anti-slavery ele- 
ment had won by a majority of about 1800. 

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin", a pathetic story of slave life and treatment. 
It produced a marked effect upon the sent- 
Tom's iment of the country, and, especially, of 

Cabin ^j^g north, concerning slavery. The first 

edition was printed in 1852. The book is still on the 
market. 

Many plantation melodies were written, some of 
which have survived to the present time. Stephan C. 
Foster's "Suwanee River", "Massa's In the Cold, 
Cold Ground" and "Mv Old Kentucky Home", will 



SLAVERY 11 

likely live for ages to come, while B. R. Hanby's 
''Darling Nellie Gray" is still a favorite. It express- 
es the deepest pathos in the line, '.'They have taken 
her to Georgia for to wear her life away." These 
are only a few of the many things in literature that 
kept the subject of slavery before the people. 

The south did not want the Slavery question agita- 
ted so much, for they saw that sentiment was against 
them. But since the assassination of Lovejoy men 
boldly printed their thoughts. 

The Slavery question had as much as anything 
else to do with the defeat of Henry Clay for the pres- 
idency of the United States. He was nom- 

Defeats i^ated for president by the Whigs in 1844. 
Clay 

The democrats nominated James K. Polk. 

One of the chief issues of the campaign was the pro- 
posed annexation of Texas, an independent republic 
that had asked to be admitted into the Un- 

Annexation.^^^ as a state. The democrats favored the 
of Texas 

annexation for it would increase the num- 
ber of slave states. The Whigs, most of whom lived 
in the north, opposed the annexation because it might 
give too much power to the slave states. Polk was 
elected and Texas was admitted as a slave state. 

Charles Dickens, the celebrated English novelist. 



12 SLAVERY 

made a tour of the United States in 1842, coming as 
far west as St. Louis. He made copious notes upon 
his experiences and observations. These he later 
compiled in a book called "American Notes", which 
was published and widely circulated. In this he 
makes considerable sport of many things he observed 
during his sojourn. 

While in the city of Washington, he visited the 
capitol. One of the mauy things that interested him 
here was a large engraved copy of the Declaration of 
Independence that hung upon the wall of one of the 
rooms. He inspected the prized document closely, 
admiring the humane thoughts Mr. Jefferson and oth- 
ers had put into it. He read that declaration that 
says that "all men are created free and equal", and 
then he "roasted" us soundly for allowing slavery to 
exist. He laid special emphasis on the slave traffic 
being carried on in the District of Columbia, almost 
under that declaration. 

No doubt this criticism was partially responsible 
for the 4th provision of the Omnibus Bill, which pro- 
hibited traffic in slaves in the District of Columbia. 

In 1846, David Wilmot, a member of congress 
from Pennsylvania, introduced a bill into congress 
which was known as the Wilmot Proviso. Bv its 



SLAVERY 13 



provisions slavery was to be prohibited in 

Wiimot ^^^ territory wliich should be acquired 
Proviso -^ 

from Mexico in the war about to begin and 

all other territory that should be acquired. This bill 
never became a law, but was the subject of much bit- 
ter discussion in all parts of the country, and helped 
to widen the breach between the north and the south. 
Following our successful war against Mexico, 
which had been brought on because of a mis-under- 
standing as to the boundary line between 

Omnibus rp^^^^g ^^^^ Mexico we acquired a vast a- 
Bill 

mount of territory extending to the Pacific 

Coast. Gold had been discovered in California and 
the state settled up very rapidly. When the question 
of admitting California to the Union arose, the whole 
Slavery subject was re-opened. The discussion be- 
came very bitter. Henry Clay, who by his compro- 
mising attitude upon this and other public questions 
won the sobriquet of "The Great Pacificator", put 
forward the famous Omnibus Bill, or Compromise of 
I80O. It provided : 

1st. That California should come in as a free 
state. 

2nd. That Utah and New Mexico should be or- 
ganized without any reference to the slavery question. 



14 SLAVERY 

:Jr(l. That Texas should be paid $10,000,000 to 
^ive lip her claim od New Mexico. 

4th. That the buying and selling of slaves should 
be prohibited in the District of Columbia, and 

5th. That a fugitive slave law should be enacted 
providing for the return of runaway slaves to their 
owners. 

When it was proposed to organize the territories 

of Kansas and Nebraska the bitterness of the Slavery 

„ question burst forth again with renewed 

Kansas^ ^ '^ 

Nebraska f^^iy. Stephan A. Douglas, United States 
^'" Senator from Illinois, introduced his fam- 

ous bill advocating the doctrine of "Squatter Sover- 
eignty", i. e., that the inhabitants of a territory 
should have the right to decide for themselves whe- 
ther the proposed state should be free or slave. This 
bill became a law in 1854 and was practically a repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise. 

The struggle was now transferred from Congress 

to Kansas, to the relief of the Congressmen, but to 

the great detriment of the people of Kan- 

... - sas. A cruel "Border Warfare", lastiny- 

Warfare ' 

four years blighted the state's progress. 
Dred Scott was a negro slave. His master, an 
arnjy officer, took liim from Missoui-i, a slave state, 



SLAVERY 15 

first to Illinois and later to Minnesota. He 
Dred 
Scott believed that because he had been taken 

Decision j^^j-^ f^.g^ territory that he should have his 

freedom. The ease was carried to the Supreme Court 

of the United States for decision. In an opinion 

handed down by Chief Justice Taney, the Supreme 

Court denied Dred Scott his freedom and declared 

that a slave owner might take his slaves into free 

territory without forfeiting any of his rights to them. 

This decision re-opened the whole slavery discus- 
sion in its bitterest form. It made all the states slave 
states ; if the slave owner had first acquired title to 
slaves in a slave state, he might take them to any free 
state and hold them as slaves. The south rejoiced 
over the decision, but the feeling of disappointment 
and disgust in the north was very great. 

The Fugitive Slave Law, providing for the return 

of slaves, escaping to the free states, to their owners 

_ . . in the slave states, passed according to a 

Fugitive 
Slave provision of the Omnibus Bill, proved very 

L^^ unpopular at the north. Many of the free 

states passed Personal Liberty Bills, guaranteeing to 

run-away slaves the right of trial by jury before they 

could be re- taken to slave territory. 

Many serious northern people wanted to help the 



1.6 SLAVERY 

negro, and the recent acts and decisions being mostly 

.... ^ against them, thev obeyed their conscienc- 

"Under- ^ j . . 

ground es rather than the Fngitive Slave Law, and 

Railway" helped many run -away slaves to get across 

the country to Canada, where they would be free by 

the English law. This system of help was known as 

the ''Underground Railway." The south complained 

very bitterly because of it. 

The celebrated Lincoln-Douglas Debates occurred 

in Illinois in the campaign of 1858. During these 

debates Mr. Lincoln succeeded in getting 
Lincoln= 

Douglas Mr. Douglas to so express himself that, 
Debates while Illinois was pleased with him and 
re-elected him to the United States Senate, the south 
was not satisfied with his position on the Slavery 
question. In 1860 the Charleston Democratic Con- 
vention refused to nominate Douglas for the Presi- 
dency; the convention divided, the northern wing of 
the party went to Baltimore and nominated Douglas ; 
the southern wing later met in Baltimore and named 
John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, as their candi- 
date.. The Republicans met in Chicago and nominat- 
ed Abraham Lincoln, whose slavery views were very 
distasteful to the south. 

Lincoln was elected and thus the Slavery question 



SLAVERY 17 

had kept another good man— Douglas— from becom- 
ing President as it had done Clay. The south could 
not stand the election of Lincoln and secession and 
war followed. 

John Brown, of Osawatomie, Kansas, who had 
taken part in the four years' "Border Warfare" in 

Kansas, burned with a desire to free the 
John 
Brown's slaves. He and twenty companions seized 

*^3*^ the United States Arsenal at Harper's Fer- 
ry, Virginia, in 1859, and declared all the slaves free, 
expecting that the slaves, themselves, would rise a- 
gainst their masters and support Brown and his raid- 
ers. They did not. John Brown was arrested by 
Col. Robert E. Lee, charged with treason, convicted 
and hanged. "John Brown's body lies a-moldering 
in the grave" became part of a song that was sung 
all over the north during the civil war. 

While there were a number of causes that led to 

the Civil War, it is certain that the Slavery question. 

Civil ^^^^ *'^^ many bitter discussions it engen- 

War dered, was among the most important. 

Most of the slave-holding states seceded from the 

Union and President Lincoln undertook to maintain 

the Union by force of arms. 

It was durino: the war, when General Robert E. 



DEC B 1913 ^ 

18 SLAVERY 

Lee, the dariiie: soutliern leader, was driven back 

from his invasion of Maryland, in the bat- 
Emancipa- 
tion Proc- tie of Antietam (September 17, 1862), that 

lamation Lincoln issued his famous Emancipation 
Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863, declaring: 
that the slaves in states or parts of states in open re- 
bellion against the United States should be free. 

Of this proclamation Lincoln said, "I made a sol- 
emn vow before God, that if General Lee was driven 
back from Maryland I w^ould crowai the result by the 
declaration of freedom to the slaves." 

There is no doubt that the slavery ques- 
Assassina= 
tion of tion was almost entirely responsible for the 

Lincoln assassination of Lincoln. 
The abolition of Slavery was accomplished by the 
ratification of the XIII Amendment to the constitu- 
tion of the United States. And thus a question that 
caused three quarters of a century of strife, four 
years of cruel war and cost millions of dollars was 
settled for all time. 



54 W 



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